Keeping It REAL…Streams of consciousness Saturday.

March 26, 2016March 26, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha20 Comments

It’s been a real struggle trying to resist joining a whole lot of challenges that I see flying around the blogosphere.

They always sound absolutely interesting that a tiny voice in me keeps nudging me to do more. My reluctance stems from the real knowledge and fair idea what getting involved would mean in real-time for me. MORE OF MY TIME.

I honestly don’t know how not to give a 100% and over when I am doing something.

I like to be that dependable. When I do less, I gain no real satisfaction and feel as if I am slacking off and letting something down.

I know these are good ways of connecting with others as well as practicing new techniques especially since I advise people to push the boundaries of their comfort.

Ruminating over it, I said to myself, Jacqueline my dear girl, you can’t seem to resist the bait of A-Z and more. Maybe, you should just take a little nibble and shelve something else. Hmm! REAL tussle in the mind. So what do you think?

Now, to get to some real talk on this post of mine.

It’s really been occupying space in my mind of late and each day the question grows.

We writers write for refined, elevated and so many other reasons. A writer will primarily tell you that they write for the love of it and not for the money. Sometimes, it does seem to me that we fail to calculate the real worth of our writing simply because the words flow easily from our minds to the tips of our pens and my wondering is that there might be need for a paradigm shift in this sort of thinking.

When you think about it, that passion for writing that we have, is been paid for with our time and other odd jobs. Won’t it be lovely if we shed other odd jobs and earned decent Ka-ching from our blogging, writing efforts?

I love writing. I love arty things. It’s beyond a passion for me and it’s not an alternative. It’s a compulsory pull.

I am trying to make conscientious effort to explore honest means of earning real cash from my endeavours. That’s the bottom line and it doesn’t make me less a writer to want to earn from the sweat of my fingers.

To live the lifestyle that I want without being enslaved to anybody, it has to work.

My conscientious effort requires reading more, researching more, learning more, having the courage to jump out of the window and all that. All these things will take some real good chunk of my time. There are no hard and fast rules to them.

I am however convinced that with dogged determination, hitting some pay; I am not sure about the dirt part, will really sweeten the pot.

Well there it is. Thank you Linda for today’s prompt word ‘real.’ It’s made me to dwell a little bit more on an issue that’s been running around in my head.

Humbly Eating Burnt Offering…Streams of consciousness Saturday.

March 19, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha29 Comments

I smile in amusement as I write this little post. If not that Easter eggs are popping up every where, my thought would have been that Linda has bionic powers to see into my kitchen.

I just finished breakfast of partially burnt scrambled eggs offered by my daughter. We are learning to cook and I guess burning is part of the practice 🙂

I humbly ate the eggs with a thankful heart. Soon enough she will get the hang of it with practice.

I think fleetingly back to my growing up years and learning how to cook in my mother’s kitchen. Only God knows how many burnt pots of rice, yam, beans, soup, I had to go through before getting into it.

Eggs were treats back then, eaten mostly on Saturday and Sundays because we had to wait for our local, home bred chickens to lay enough of them and on some days during the week, they were stingy or lazy with the laying of the eggs.

It’s not like now, where trays and trays of different types of eggs are on display for customers to choose as many crates as they wish.

Back then, it used to be a delight to go to the chicken coop at the back and find a warm, just laid egg.

Occasionally we were blessed with seeing a little chick hatch from eggs that my grandma set aside.

How she knew the ones that would hatch is something that I never understood.

Personal

A ball of sadness in me…Streams of Consciousness Saturday.

March 12, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha25 Comments

Linda mentions ‘ball’ as today’s prompt and I think of the different balls that I am playing with right now.

The fleeting thought of my young sons ball comes to my mind and I pray his fever will break so that he can play happily.

It’s my birthday tomorrow and I should be preparing to have a ball, but I am just not feeling it.

A few days ago, I was excited and gearing for an awesome day and I still hope to, but when you have a child a little bit down, the last thing on your mind is a ball.

However the big ball that forms in my stomach makes me feel so sad and almost reluctant to talk about it.

As much as I can, I avoid race talks because it only stirs up strong emotions.

Last night a friend sent a video of a black girl being pushed around and insulted and insulted by some guy’s – white.

I wanted to stop watching it, but I continued. By the end of that short video, I had tears in my eyes and just felt so heavy.

I can’t even begin to articulate all the thoughts that went through my head.

My question has always been, are we not all human? Why are some people like this? What’s the benefit of such ugliness and discrimination?

We claim to be different, to be enlightened, we claim not being racists, yet at every turn it stares us in the face.

These boys who pushed a young girl about and called her ugly names, learnt it from somewhere and most likely their homes.

Racism is learnt ‘cos no child is born that way.

I have no answers just a ball of sadness that sits in me and I obviously went to bed with that thought and it’s been more so on my mind after watching the fiasco of American campaign trails in Chicago.

I strive to teach my children to work hard and rise up and above expectations.

I try to teach them that before God all men are equal.

I try to teach them to embrace life with an open mind, but sometimes society makes playing this ball so hard.

Personal · This Is My Life

This Is Who I Am….Streams of consciousness Saturday.

March 5, 2016March 5, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha40 Comments

This is what it is and I have come to accept that. When I was younger, it was a bit difficult to really describe who I was or am and what I am all about.

I can get quite wrapped up in my books and in make-believe Worlds that open up for me in the pages and I find beautiful contentment from that.

Being around lots of people gives me pleasure and I would be the life of the party. Mingling, laughing, dancing and all the merry-making, yet in the background of all this, is some still brook that runs deep inside me. A reserved person looking from the outside.

This different personalities that inhabited one soul, confused me a bit in the younger years of still trying to find myself. I thought that I had to fit into a mold.

That I had to be x or y, black or white, this or that. That I had to be either an extrovert or introvert and every other label that people put out there to pen everyone else.

My mother would say that I was the most quiet child she has when we were growing up, with an acute sense of responsibility, yet at the same time, she would equally say that I am one person that would arrive and would be welcomed as many. ‘When she comes in, we say you people are welcome.’ A one woman riot squad.

In the early days, I never quite understood these things and struggled to fit into one caption or the other.

Now, I am older and wiser, I embrace the me who is a bundle of eclectic this and that and I have ceased with the defining.

I accept and love the me who rages like a wild-fire yet burns in peaceful flames.

The cool sophisticated lady with the blend of a gypsy, wild child.

I admire the me who loves colours in splashes of vivid brightness and the calmness of cool pastels. Who has a myriad taste, yet particular. A me who reads like an open book, yet with curling smokes of mystery.

This is me who loves noise and quiet, who embraces life with zest and calmness. A bundle of contradicting this and that.

No more definitions!

Today’s SOC’s prompt asking us to write about this and that had me looking around for a few minutes then I realized that I am an epitome of lots of this and that.

Challenges · Creative Writing · Life · Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

A Song Of The Taste Buds… Stream of consciousness Saturday

February 27, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha22 Comments

Food. Yes. It is one thing that we all partake of throughout our lives. It evokes a whole lot of good feelings and memories in most of us.

It is used to celebrate virtually every form of congregation known to man and as a former food business owner, it is a very profitable business, but also a slave master that requires so much work to produce a piece of delicacy that is consumed in a bite.

As though Linda is aware of my last night’s secrets of eating a little more helping from the buffet, with the prompt word ‘Food,’ I might as well confess and write the thoughts that I had when my eyes beheld the arrays of edible brilliance.

The Song Of My Taste Buds

The flowing fountain of chocolate

The decadent slices of creme brulee, creamy cakes and buttery cups of cream caramel

The offerings of fish dishes, pan-fried, battered, deep-fried baked or barbecued,

They all seemed, fluffy and delicious, asking for a taste.

Rice in such designs, from vegetable, to plain, to white, to curry, it’s all nice

The sauteed meats and the not so laughing cow

Giant shrimps and huge prawns with beady eyes,

The crabs claws looks set to give the fingers a pinch

The steam rising from the chaffing dishes,

Disseminating the flavourful aroma of dishes a plenty

Mashed potatoes to go with black pepper sauce

Artichokes, Mushrooms, Broccoli, Lettuce and so much more

Pot roast, meatloaf, clam chowders oh my

All the drool inducing platters

An orchestra to ravenous appetite

The soft music plays on as we rotate round the food circle

A bite, a sip of drink and laughter

The elation on the faces of the consumers, says it all

The conviviality in the air

Our senses all dancing to the beat of our stomach

And the siren call of the food platter.

Challenges · Hope · Life · Love · Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

Sweet Painful Contractions…Streams of Consciousness Saturday

February 20, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha24 Comments

Contraction! I am doubled over in visceral pain, trying to catch my breath. Now what happened to those breathing exercises, when you need them. I am huffing and puffing, though I don’t resemble the big bad Wolf in any way.

All I feel is the pain that knife’s through me as if my insides would be turned out and I would be rendered to pieces.

It hits again. Another big contraction. In waves, without stopping. I feel battered and almost out of my mind.

This is the labour room and a true definition of the word labour. This is hard work in all it’s beauty, pain and glory. This is nature in one of it’s finest moments. Arrgh!

I want to rise from this infernal bed and run away as fast as I can. As though running away would leave the pain behind.

Nope! This is the real deal. No longer any imitation in the name of Braxton Hicks. He is ready to say ‘Hello Mama‘ and I can’t wait to see him as well, that is if these contractions don’t kill me first.

I try not to swear as a bear down. I wouldn’t like the first words my baby gets to hear from me to be; ‘Damn Contractions!’

Well that was fun to write. Linda thank you for taking me down memory lane with your prompt. I couldn’t think of anything else once I saw the word ‘contraction.’

Have a lovely weekend good people.

Blog-hopping · Challenges · Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

Tireless Mind…Streams Of Consciousness Saturday.

February 13, 2016February 20, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha30 Comments

Well Linda it seems as if you know my mind is consumed with all the fine details of hosting my first blog meet-up party. Who would have thought it that nine months from starting my blog that I would have the gumption to jump into doing this and I can’t seem to ‘tire’ of thinking about how it would turn out.

I am getting daring and jumping into the deep end of these bloggy waters and now that I have jumped into the pool, I must not ‘tire’ easily of swimming in it.

It’s an adventure. My adrenaline is pumping and I am shuffling my music like a professional D.J.

My entire crew (my family) are smiling at my bubbly self and anyone would think that I am having a live party in my house.

I am practically struggling to resist the urge to pick up my house duster 🙂

I haven’t felt this excited in weeks and even though it involves ‘tireless’ hours of fixing this and doing that, it’s all good and I am enjoying the experience.

Now, I look with more respect and admiration at those bigger blogs I know, where the awesome bloggers behind them seem to do this effortlessly without any sweat.

Challenges · Family · Parenting · Photographs · Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

With These Fingers…Streams of consciousness Saturday.

February 6, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha48 Comments

It’s quite interesting that Linda’s prompt for SOCS which I just saw is ‘fingers.

Why I find it interesting is that I woke up this morning and as I was going through my Bible, for some reason my eyes fell on my hennaed hands and my first thought was how my hands and fingers resembled my dads own and for the fun of it, I took a picture.

I remember that as a child, I wanted my fingers to look like my mom’s own. Her fingers were dainty and nicely shaped, while mine took after my fathers own.

As the years went by, I grew to love mine as much as I love the man who passed on the genes.

His hands were hardworking and I believe that I inherited this trait. His hands were upright and as honest as could be and he had green fingers. Living things thrived in his care and plants bloomed generously in our garden.

I still remember, maybe I was four or less, his hands holding mine and guiding my fingers to scribble on my blackboard.

I remember vividly like yesterday as he walked me down the aisle and he took my hand with my beautifully painted fingers and placed them in my husband’s hands and in a gruff voice, he instructed my dear Himself to make sure that he looked after me.

Who knows, maybe I might equally have green fingers. I have moved around so much from one country to the other, that the last time I grew anything was several years back in my house in Nigeria. I look forward to the coming years to discover my green fingers.

Hold my hands in faith

And clutch my fingers tight

I will walk you through this journey

For you are not alone.